Spice cabinet - built inside out

Here’s a spice cabinet I finished up recently that I built from the inside out. The materials are pretty humble, but filler & paint fix a lot of sins.

I started with a box that I knew was deep enough to hold the spice jars and put the shelves in. It’s held together with screws and nails, without any tricks to hide them. It’s made of 1/2” ply for the outside box and 3/8” ply for the shelves.

I made a face frame to match and attached it to the inner box with pocket screws, again not hiding the joinery.

Then I built another box around the inner box to hide all the nails and screws. Because the kitchen has a piece of trim around the whole room at about five feet, I had to make the cabinet fit over the it. So the outer box has a cutout on the back edge.

It’s hanging from a french cleat that’s concealed behind the outer box.

There’s also a small lip on the front edge of each shelf, to keep the jars from sliding out if the cabinet gets bumped. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem, though; it’s more solidly attached to the wall than I thought it would be with just a cleat.

If I get ambitious later on I’ll add glass panel doors, but that’s another day.